You whip a top twenty team, you get good grades, even with this Outback Steakhouse grading system:

Filet mignon: Primo performance. Entire meal on the house.

Prime rib: Solid job, a key to the victory. Free drinks.

T-bone: Had your moments. You get a discount coupon for next time.

Chopped sirloin: Little positive impact. No soup for you.

Swiss mis-steak: No factor, no effort. Off to the kitchen to wash dishes. And come back tomorrow night to bus tables.

OFFENSE

QUARTERBACK ANTHONY MORELLI

Filet mignon. Morelli became the man – at least that is what we’re hoping. He was accurate. Avoided sacks. Took charge of the offense. No turnovers. Became a leader. Stats would have been much better except for three drops and two other completions overturned by replay review. And here’s an eerily similar bowl-game comparison: One junior QB goes 14 for 25 passing for 197 yards and a TD and leads his team to a double-digit bowl game victory over Tennessee. The other junior QB goes 15 for 24 for 162 yards and two TDs and leads his team to a double-digit bowl game victory over Tennessee. The former: Anthony Morelli on Monday. The latter: Kerry Collins on Jan. 1, 1994, the season before he took the Lions to a 12-0 record.

RUNNING BACK TONY HUNT

Filet mignon. Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer got it right in saying Hunt is one of the must underrated backs that he has ever seen. Hunt ran with authority, breaking tackles, holding onto the ball and chewing up yards. He and the O-line controlled the game in the fourth quarter.

RECEIVERS

Prime rib. Deon Butler, Derrick Williams and Jordan Norwood made clutch catches and in traffic and for first downs – although as usual there were a couple of drops mixed in there. Butler, to my pleasant surprise, came through against a name opponent, and let’s hope that carries into next year. Fourth wideout Terrell Golden had key grab of long pass on third down. Tight end Andrew Quarless wasn’t thrown to much but he snared a TD catch and showed great hands in making another catch at the sideline that was overturned by replay ref.

OFFENSIVE LINE

Prime rib. No sacks surrendered. Made enough room for Hunt to plug for 158 yards. Signature moment consisted of six straight runs by Hunt for 42 yards to set up game-clinching field goal late in game. By then everyone, possibly even Tennessee Tuxedo, knew the Lions were going to run – but still the line created room.

DEFENSE

DEFENSIVE LINE

Prime rib. Tackle Jay Alford was a disruptive force inside but in general the group had trouble reaching statue Erik Ainge. On the other hand, the line was central to containing Volunteer rushing attack. End Tim Shaw’s speed showed in notching seven tackles, including two for losses.

LINEBACKERS

Filet mignon. A couple of mistakes on Tennessee’s only TD drive but otherwise a great day. Paul Posluszny and Dan Connor showed All-America form.

SECONDARY

Filet mignon. Under fire all game but withstood the barrage. Corner Justin King silenced star wideout Robert Meachem like the audience for a bad sitcom. Other corner Tony Davis had the play of the game in fumble return for TD. Safety Anthony Scirrotto had superb game with eight tackles, two pass break-ups and one interception. Other safety Donnie Johnson was beat several times in coverage.

SPECIAL TEAMS KEVIN KELLY

Chopped sirloin. Two-for-5 and two of the misses not close. I sure don’t want to go through this again next year – or the next. Or ever again, for that matter. Kelly’s kickoffs were strong, though.

REST OF SPECIAL TEAMS

Prime rib. Strong coverage on kicks. Two punts downed inside 20. Derrick Williams let two punts go unfielded but he set up game-clinching field goal with a 20-yard punt return.

COACHING

Prime rib. Only major fault was that fancy crap with D-Will lining up at QB. Let me say this again: That formation will never work until D-Will actually throws and then even completes some damn passes. Having said that, it was a great game plan on offense and defense. Coaches figured Lions were physical enough to run on Tennessee and that worked. Used a bunch formation on many runs and Vols never could stop it. Coaches also built Morelli’s confidence during the entire bowl trip, and by game time the QB thought he was Joe Montana Jr. Call for a long pass on third and short was brilliant. As for the defense, Vol running game was contained except for one play, and secondary gave up lots of completions and yards, but scoreboard doesn’t lie. It was a bit like Penn State-Miami national title game of 20 years ago in which secondary gave up only short passes and when it did, it punished receivers. Nitpicks: Wanted to see coaches set up game-clinching field goal by running to right side. Coaches wasted 10 seconds before ordering time out late in first half and that was costly in terms of not getting into better field-goal range. Would have been cool to see JoePa go even more nuts in the coaches’ box after Tony Davis’ game-winning TD.

RECRUITING UPDATE

How is recruiting going so far? Not bad, according to ESPN, which has Penn State ranked as tops in the Big Ten and 8th in the nation, to date. I think that ranking is too high, by the way. But here is the link to the site.